WHAT & WHO WERE LEVELLERS?        

The Levellers were a republican and democratic movement dedicated to levelling out social and political inequalities. Oliver Cromwell and other Parliamentarians viewed this with mounting concern. The Levellers' political creed, Agreement of the People (1647), found wide support among the lower classes and the soldiers of the New Model Army. The leaders of the movement, such as John Lilburne , were savagely punished by Cromwell. As a result, the Levellers effectively ceased to exist after 1649.

This group of English reformers was mainly active during the period from 1645 through 1649, who originated many of the ideas that eventually became provisions of the U.S. Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. 

The Levellers' programme was based on a potent set of radical ideas. Lilburne championed religious toleration, campaigned for codification of the law, and fashioned Parliamentarian political thought into a weapon against Parliament itself. Power, the Levellers argued, originated in 'freeborn' people with natural rights, and authority was merely entrusted to their representatives. By its very nature, political power was therefore susceptible to being reclaimed by the people

Inspired by the Petition of Right of 1628, and led by John Lilburne, beginning as a lieutenant of Oliver Cromwell, they initially supported the Protectorate, but then turned against it when Cromwell failed to make the reforms they demanded. Oliver Cromwell and other Parliamentarians viewed this dissention with mounting concern and subsequently their response was the prosecution of most of its leaders, who were either imprisoned or executed. Their proposals continued, however, to inspire political philosophers and future generations of reformers. They appear to have influenced their contemporary, Thomas Hobbes, and later writers such as James Harrington and John Locke. Their proposals were revived during the Revolution of 1688 to produce the English Bill of Rights in 1689, which led to the Whig party in Britain that supported many of the reforms for Britain sought by the Americans during the War of Independence.

During the period of their greatest activity, the Levellers produced a number of political documents, which have been gathered and published by various editors.